Threat to kill wild boar that stole nude bather's laptop prompts outcry | Hacker News Reader

Threat to kill wild boar that stole nude bather's laptop prompts outcry

theguardian.com

16 pointsvijayr0214 comments

I live in a nature reserve next to a medium large western European town. There are "wild" horses and "wild" cows there. Wild, in quotes because they are managed and monitored. I sometimes help as volunteer; e.g. when they are severely wounded, or sick, they'll be slaughtered. Otherwise the're left alone.

There are beaches here, where the horses love to come (esp. when it's hot); and where in summer thousands of citizens have parties, BBQs, Picnicks, familidays and whatnots.

Each year, some horses get cocky and steal food. Wild (untrained) horses are dangerous when they've overcome their fear for humans, they will damage cars, bikes, etc. and sometimes theyu will hurt humans or dogs (which technically aren't allowed to roam unleashed there, but we all know how it is when you take a dog for a day swimming...)

The solution is as simple as it is elegant: they move the horses to another area. As far as the other side of Europe in some cases, or simply a few KM away - across some fences. No need to kill them. And apparently, after some years, they either die, or forgot about humans enough that their instinctive fear for humans return enough not to attack humans and take their lunch.

I live in Hong Kong where there are wild boar living in the jungle right next to the city. Several people have been killed or injured by them when they wander into populated areas and get lost / confused, or just in general when people encounter them on the hiking paths and think they can mess with them.

Yes, it's funny that it stole the naked man's laptop, but they're not a joke. They are dangerous wild animals.

Of course. But this doesn't mean the human stupidity and irresponsibility is a reason to kill them. If anything, it's actually the human who should know better.

In several European countries the population of wild boars exploded in recent years.

I've just read an article about France. Apparently 46,000 wild boars were hunted in 1973 and that rose to 780k in 2018 in an attempt to control numbers, with a population in the millions.

Wild boars cause damage to agriculture but, as this story shows, these days they also come very close to people and often forage in people's trash bins, etc.

Wild boar tend to quickly dominate and devour an ecosystem. Not sure how stable the population is there, but many times you have to intervene in order to protect the balance of the flora and fauna.

That the pigs usurped the human role on Manor Farm was not accidental.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24078684

(I have had incident-free encounters with boars, bulls, and bears. Wild animals may be dangerous, but unlike some domesticated humans, they aren't respectless.)

in order to protect the balance of the flora and fauna

...and electronica, apparently.

I think most interventions are ‘necessary’ because of other stuff humans did to the ecosystem (‘necessary’ in quotes because, without hunting, nature would find an equilibrium, too, just not one we want to see)

It’s not as of, when you dig anywhere, all you find is remains of wild boar, and that only ended when humans started intervening.

(And for those who don’t know: this species is native to Germany)

Totally agree on all counts, particularly in that humans have eliminated nearly all large predators from populated areas.

Doesn't change the fact that hogs will shred an environment, drive ground-nesting birds out of the environment completely, etc. etc. We could bring back large wild cats and wolves or just relocate/shoot them.

Prompts outcry from people who will have chicken or beef for dinner that night, presumably.

Is the implication that they're fools for... considering multiple cases and scenarios and not having a strict mandate to kill all animals in all situations or save all animals in all situations?

Could we stop posting headlines from Markov generators?

"Go home 2020. You're drunk." -- r.t.

Hacker News after dark. Brilliant stuff.

I know there is a serious element to the conversation as well, but I found this part really funny :)

>“They phlegmatically forage in broad daylight over the grass looking for food wherever there are bathers. They have lost all sense of shyness.”

This is in a nudist park...

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